Fabio Capello arrived in South Africa hoping to "make history" although he will take no pleasure in the record he ended up setting after Fifa's post-tournament rankings revealed this to have been the worst England World Cup campaign ever.

Fifa rated the Italian's side 13th of the 32 teams competing in the tournament, worse than their 11th-place finish out of 16 sides at the 1958 finals in Sweden. England's toils in South Africa, where they finished second in what had been perceived to be a weak group and required victory in their last match to avoid missing out on the knockout stage, contrast markedly with their past three appearances at the finals.

Glenn Hoddle's side were eliminated in the second round in France in 1998, losing on penalties to Argentina, but were ranked ninth. Sven-Goran Eriksson's quarter-finalists were ranked sixth in Japan in 2002 and Germany four years ago, with the rankings taking into account results in the group, progress in the competition and which teams were overcome. England failed to qualify in 1974, 1978 and 1994.

Capello's much-fancied team eventually suffered their worst ever defeat in the tournament, beaten 4-1 by Germany in Bloemfontein, with Wayne Rooney failing to score a goal in his four appearances and the team's other key players failing to perform consistently. The manager's position was subject to review by the board of Club England following elimination, with the chairman, Sir Dave Richards, subsequently confirming that the Italian will see out the remainder of his £6m-a-year contract, which runs to 2012.

The team's failure has heightened the debate over the long-term development of the game in England, in particular youth development and the number of English players progressing through the ranks at Premier League clubs. The Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, suggested today that the game has stalled in England and cited the flood of foreign players currently plying their trade in the top flight as detrimental to the national side.

"As for England, ask the FA and the Anglo-Saxon world," Blatter said. "England is considered the motherland of football, like Brazil is considered as the deepest level of football. But ever since Fifa has existed, everybody has developed. There are no more small national teams. Perhaps there are small countries, but their national teams are strong. Football has developed everywhere. Players play in different leagues. The internationalism of football is good for some and not for others.

"One example of that is England. But it is good for Spain. All 11 starting players [in the World Cup final] play in La Liga. All 11. That's the difference. You can draw your own conclusions. I am trying to draw the difference between the Premier League and La Liga."